


really, we should have seen this coming

by flashforeward



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Podfic, Podfic Available, Spoilers, aliens man, blessedly free of garbage bears, let's be honest this is what greg deserves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-18
Updated: 2017-06-18
Packaged: 2018-11-15 19:38:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11237805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flashforeward/pseuds/flashforeward
Summary: In which the Emily situation is a little more complicated than expected. [includes Podfic]





	really, we should have seen this coming

**Author's Note:**

> This might become a multi-chapter work. Not sure yet.

  
**[Download](http://kiwi6.com/file/lqf6a1fqzb) **

\--

Emily isn't sure what's going on. She's tired and she's alone and she wants to go home but someone else is home. Something else? She doesn't know. They found it before they found her and whoever or whatever it is was quick to play the part, to step into her shoes. She sees the Tim sometimes. She can tell it isn't really Tim, just like the her that has taken over her life isn't really her, but she knows the others can't tell and she understands how frustrating that must be. She feels for Mary and the kids, hopes they at least have gotten close enough to tell that their Tim is back. The imposter is angry - angry at Tim, angry at her, angry, most especially, at Ben. It wants to take the real Tim's place for good, as it was always meant to, and when it hides in the woods Emily hears it whispering to itself about its plans and how first it must replace Tim and then it must destroy those who tried to thwart the mission.

Starting with Ben Arnold.

And Emily needs to warn him. Get back to him and tell him what's coming.

She slipped into town one night, got her hands on a radio. She's been listening, paying close attention to what's been happening. She should have gotten a phone but the radio was easier and besides, it's better she knows the lay of the land before she tries to approach. She's glad she waited because now she knows how deeply ingrained her double already is - she's doing better than the Tim did. Is it because Emily herself is closer than Tim was? Was the Tim a test and they perfected the process? Emily doesn't know, but she does know that her life is going to be completely destroyed if she doesn't do something.

Soon.

The selective amnesia was a nice touch. They don't trust Ben and Sammy, so her double had to find a way to distance herself from them. From Ben especially because Ben was the planner, the one who came up with all of this. The reason Tim is back and the Tim is in constant hiding. The reason she isn't still locked away, giving her own double time to do...whatever it is they need to do.

She wishes she knew. God how she wishes she knew. This would be easier if she had something specific to plan against, but all she has is the knowledge that she is trapped in this forest with apparitions and werewolves, listening to a nightly radio show in the hopes of catching some sort of clue or finding an opening for her to approach Ben without risking her double finding out and stopping her.

It's going to be hard enough to convince Ben of the truth, she doesn't need two of her in the same place complicating everything and confusing the issue.

So she hides and she listens and she cringes as her double starts to spend time with Greg Frickard.

It's when she finds out what he's been claiming that she knows she has to make her move. Saying _he_ saved her. That _he_ planned it all. And her double playing at forgetting, accepting his answers, widening the distance between her and Ben.

No.

Whatever comes of this, she cannot lose her best friend, not after everything.

Going to the station is a risk but it's her best option. No way will Frickard let her double go back there and that means it's safe. It's safe until she tells Ben the truth, anyway. There's no way to know how he'll react to the news, but she can't hide forever. And getting a phone has proved difficult. And besides, this is best done in person, not over the phone. Face to face so he can see her sincerity, know she isn't lying.

She hopes.

Sammy answers her knock. Looks over her shoulder at the parking lot.

"He isn't here," she says. He nods and steps aside to let her in. His expression is dark, closed off. He won't meet her eyes. _Fuck_ Greg Frickard. He's doing everything he's wanted to do since they met - cutting her off, isolating her, making her his and his alone.

Except it isn't her.

And he'll be in for an unpleasant wake up if the aliens get the chance to make their move. If Emily's plan, half formed and improbable as it is, doesn't work.

"Can I talk to Ben?" Emily asks, standing awkwardly in the station office. Sammy shakes his head, crosses his arms over his chest, stands in front of the studio door like a bouncer at a club. "Please, Sammy, it's important."

"Look, can't you let him have a few days to cool down?" Sammy asks. "This is. It's his worst fear come to fruition, you know? He just needs time."

"We don't _have_ time, Sammy," Emily snaps. She swore she'd be patient, keep her temper in check, but she's been waiting so long for this chance and here it is slipping away like water through clenched fingers. "It's not. I'm not." She blows out a frustrated breath, tries again. "I know the truth."

"You made that clear." It's Ben. He's come out of the studio. Put on an ad so he could...what? Tell her off? Tell her to go back to Greg and his frog legs? None of those seem like Ben, but then neither does the empty look in his eyes. He's given up, accepting defeat at the hands of the frog prince.

"No, Ben, I know it was you," Emily says, rushing through this as quickly as she can. "I know you planned it all, you saved me. Greg wasn't even _there_ , I would have seen him!"

"Then why did you pretend you didn't even know me?" Ben's eyes aren't empty anymore. He's hurt, his voice cracking as he snaps. Anger and fear and frustration rushing out of him now. "Why did you let that. That. Fucking _Frickard_ believe he'd convinced you."

"I didn't." Emily's voice is so quiet she isn't sure they heard, but they exchange a look and Ben nods and Sammy disappears into the studio to take over the show while Ben takes up Sammy's post as guard dog and waits. This is it. This is the moment she's been dreading and waiting for for weeks. "The Emily with Greg isn't real," she says, "she's a double, like the extra Tim. I'm the real Emily." She reaches out for him, but he doesn't move and her hand drops.

And then it comes, as she always knew it would. "How do we know you're telling the truth?"

"Because I remember you, Ben," she says. "I know everything you did for me. I know how much you missed me. Miss me. And I miss you, too." She reaches out again.

Again, he doesn't move.

"A replica would say that, wouldn't it? Try to get me to trust it?"

"They want to distance me from you. You're a threat and they want to isolate you so they can take you out." She takes a deep breath. "Would the enemy tell you that?"

Ben's voice is quiet. "Why did you wait so long, then?"

"And risk what the Tims have been through? I had to make sure I wouldn't be seen at the same time as her. And I had to avoid Greg. And I had to figure it out. I had to come to you with something, Ben. I couldn't just. Walk in empty handed and expect you to believe me...Could I?"

Ben is so quiet for so long she thinks he's just going to walk back into the studio and leave her there, alone and disconnected once again. But then. Then he steps forward. He reaches out, tentative. She doesn't move, lets him touch her, run light fingers over her cheek. His eyes are filled with tears as he comes closer, wraps his arms around her, hugs her tight, and whispers, "Tell me everything."

And finally, _finally_ , she feels like she's come home.


End file.
